You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When it Monsoons

You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When it Monsoons: The World on a Cartoon a day by Mo Willems.  Makes me wish I could sum up all my elaborate and wordy journal entries from my time spent in Nepal with a haiku a day, which is essentially what children’s book writer Mo Williams has done. What a journey! You won’t regret picking this up, a great on the toilet or a few pages before bed read.

Ludlow

Ludlow, by poet David Mason is an enchanting and hypnotic retelling of the 1914 Ludlow Massacre in which striking coal workers, just beginning to organize under the guidance of the U.M.W. were attacked and slaughtered by mine guards and militia soldiers led by General John Chase.  Mason’s retelling uses narrative verse which one might find awkward at first but soon fall into it’s rhythms. In a landscape of canyons and buttes, the south Colorado coal country comes alive through the diverse cast of mine workers who work the earth.  Led by the Greek, Ilias Spantidakis, rechristened Luis Tikas, the lives of Mexican, Sicilian, Japanese, Slavic and Italian mine workers are changed forever by the courage of a few men.

If you appreciate new literary forms, be sure to check this out as I don’t believe there has been much like it since the great narrative works of Homer.

Memoirs from Books to Bond

A glimpse at two new books, sure to pique the curiosity of hordes of readers, from lovers of Westerns to bibliophiles, book collectors and 007 fanatics alike.  The first is Books: a memoir by Larry McMurtry (2008 Simon & Schuster) author of Lonesome Dove, Sin Killer and recently the screenplay for the film adaptation of Brokeback Mountain.  Though the reviews are mixed, for the most part readers are excited to learn about the “other” life of author McMurtry as he discusses his passion for literature and the books that have influenced his work, and also for the collecting and selling of rare books.  Negative reviews have focused on the sparseness of the literary commentary of certain prized items in McMurtry’s collection and criticize the volume as feeling incomplete and forced, while those in favor rave that McMurtry truly captures the essence of the fever which infects collectors and keeps them coming back.   While fan’s of McMurtry’s Western-set fiction might be treading unfamiliar terrain, fans of books about books will be right at home here.

I caught a conversation with Roger Moore on that radio this past week and got totally sucked into the 007 Mania that you could feel buzzing in the voices of all the callers and in Moore’s discussion of people’s different allegiances with the various Bond actors.  Moore discussed his memoir, My Word is My Bond (2008 Harper Collins) and you can listen to the story and get a laugh at Moore’s son telling him that Sean Connery as Bond could kick his butt.  From first memories of life in London to the decadent life of travel and luxury while filming 7 Bond films during the 70s and 80s Moore’s stream of concousness style meanders at times but manages to recall some very intriguing moments from the actor’s career from bedroom scenes to old school special effects.

Immigrant Tales

A sampling of stories from the literary world in celebration of those who braved the unknown, left behind beloved homes in order to seek better opportunity or at least, to survive.

Kim Masters shared a terrific essay on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday about her family’s roots in Czechoslovakia and the influence one young British man had in assuring the survival of so many Czech children in the days leading up to the Holocaust. Read and listen to her essay Finding A Hero Amid Fading Memories.

Following this moving segment by Masters, Scott Simon sat down to speak with Romanian musician, Sanda Weigl to discuss moving to East Berlin days before the Berlin Wall, her time in a forced labor factory and finally finding home in New York City. The segment features Weigl’s music, rich in Gypsy influence, which she regularly performs in cabaret’s backed by a three piece all Japanese trio, dubbed, “the band” who, insists Wiegle, “play Romanian gypsy music better than most Romanian musicians today”.

Both stories got me thinking about my Grandparents, who immigrated to New York from Lithuania in 1949 following years of hiding throughout Germany, passing as Germans. My Grandparent’s versions of history always challenged my perceptions as in their experiences, it was the kindness of the Germans in the face of a Russian invasion which allowed for their safe departure from Lithuania and eventually to the U.S. I came across a terrifc documentary, Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness, which chronicles the bravery of a Japanese consul in Lithuania in during the war, who helped many Lithuanian-Jews obtain exit visas. William Kaplan’s , One More Border: the true story of one family’s escape from war torn Europe is a beautifully illustrated (Shelley Tanaka) account of his father’s esape from Lithuania is an excellent and historically accurate telling of the story for younger readers.

For a wide sampling of the immigrant experience try a few of the following.

Crossing into America: the new literature of immigration which I tracked down in order to read Li-Young Lee’s, The Cleaving which is featured in the collection. Lee will be the keynote speaker at the 2009 Kachemak Bay Writer’s Conference and I’ve been eagerly devouring his unique brand of poetry.

In the July/August issue of Orion Magazine, Charles Bowdan and Julian Cardona’s, Exodus, a cross-border look at the latest wave of immigration from Mexico will leave you reeling in the unstoppable power of the current of this economics of survival situation.